Related papers: Energy conversion in Purple Bacteria Photosynthesi…
Photosynthesis is arguably the fundamental process of Life, since it enables energy from the Sun to enter the food-chain on Earth. It is a remarkable non-equilibrium process in which photons are converted to many-body excitations which…
The remarkable rotational symmetry of the photosynthetic antenna complexes of purple bacteria has long been thought to enhance their light harvesting and excitation energy transport. We study the role of symmetry by modeling hypothetical…
Photosynthetic organisms use networks of chromophores to absorb sunlight and deliver the energy to reaction centres, where charge separation triggers a cascade of chemical steps to store the energy. We present a detailed model of the…
Photosynthesis transfers energy efficiently through a series of antenna complexes to the reaction center where charge separation occurs. Energy transfer in vivo is primarily monitored by measuring fluorescence signals from the small…
Light-harvesting bacteria Rhodospirillum Photometricum were recently found to adopt strikingly different architectures depending on illumination conditions. We present analytic and numerical calculations which explain this observation by…
Photosynthesis, the process by which energy from sunlight drives cellular metabolism, relies on a unique organization of light-harvesting and reaction center complexes. Recently, the organization of light-harvesting LH2 complexes and…
Photosynthesis is remarkable, achieving near unity light harvesting quantum efficiency in spite of dynamic light conditions and noisy physiological environment. Under these adverse conditions, it remains unknown whether there exists a…
Photosynthesis converts sunlight into the chemical free energy that feeds the Earth's biosphere, yet at levels much lower than what thermodynamics would allow for. I propose here that photosynthesis is nevertheless thermodynamically…
Living organisms have to adjust to their surrounding in order to survive in stressful conditions. We study this mechanism in one of most primitive creatures - photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria. These bacteria absorb photons very…
Photosynthetic systems utilize adaptability to respond efficiently to fluctuations in their light environment. As a result, large photosynthetic yields can be achieved in conditions of low light intensity, while photoprotection mechanisms…
Photosynthetic organisms rely on a series of self-assembled nanostructures with tuned electronic energy levels in order to transport energy from where it is collected by photon absorption, to reaction centers where the energy is used to…
The rapidly developing research field of organic analogue sensors aims to replace traditional semiconductors with naturally occurring materials. Photosensors, or photodetectors, change their electrical properties in response to the light…
Phototrophic organisms such as plants, photosynthetic bacteria and algae use microscopic complexes of pigment molecules to absorb sunlight. Within the light-harvesting complexes, which frequently have several functional and structural…
Thermal light sources can produce photons with strong spatial correlations. We study the role that these correlations might potentially play in bacterial photosynthesis. Our findings show a relationship between the transversal distance…
We examine computational techniques and methodologies currently in use to explore electronic excitation energy transfer in the context of light-harvesting complexes in photosynthetic antenna systems, and comment on some new insights into…
Photosynthesis is the basic process used by plants to convert light energy in reaction centers into chemical energy. The high efficiency of this process is not yet understood today. Using the formalism for the description of open quantum…
Photosynthetic organisms harvest light energy, utilizing the absorption and energy transfer properties of protein-bound chromophores. Controlling the harvesting efficiency is critical for the optimal function of the photosynthetic…
Photoactive proteins absorb light and undergo structural changes that enable them to perform essential biological functions. These proteins are critical for understanding light-induced biological processes, making them important in…
Most of our current understanding of mechanisms of photosynthesis comes from spectroscopy. However, classical definition of radio-antenna can be extended to optical regime to discuss the function of light-harvesting antennae. Further to our…
Why do plants reflect in the green and have a 'red edge' in the red, and should extrasolar photosynthesis be the same? We provide: 1) a brief review of how photosynthesis works; 2) an overview of the diversity of photosynthetic organisms,…